Op-Ed

My latest nonfiction read was Donald A. Norman's The Design of Everyday Things. Norman's central theme is design - what makes good design, what makes bad design - and it essentially builds a picture of what makes a well-crafted object, room or item.

I have, as a recovering retailer, run my own midnight opening several times, and I assure you, it's better to control the retail gods than be at their mercy. The sense of vague superiority one might sense from clerks holding the keys to something so desirable is not imaginary, and like guests at Disney World, we are their voluntary captives, subject to ridiculous, overpriced product offers with high profit margins.

This week, as news of the release of Blizzard's Burning Crusade expansion to the ridiculously successful World of Warcraft MMOG spread across the web like wildfire, a second story appeared. While the first-in-liners settled in behind their computers for a long winter's nap of adventure and discovery in the newly-expanded world of Azeroth, one man quietly announced that he'd already been there, done that and had the "ding" to prove it.

At first glance, the girl with sparkly flowers painted over her bare nipples didn't seem all that out of place. We were in Las Vegas, after all, and if the city is known for anything, it's vice. A half-naked girl running around with barely-concealed breasts and a see-through miniskirt that showed more than it hinted at seemed like she belonged there more than we did, and who were we to tell her to go put something on? Her house, her rules, as they say.

"You sure complain a lot about current games," said a friend in an e-mail debate about the state of gaming. "But what is it that you want? Just what are you looking for?"

I gave him some pithy response in an attempt to prove my intellectual and moral superiority, much as most of my e-mail debates tend to end up. But then, in the cold white glare of a looming deadline, a blinking cursor and "Document 1 - Microsoft Word" for progress, I began to wonder about his words.

As the highly anticipated World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade, is even now lovingly pressed onto glorious discs that will deliver whole new realms of exploration to the game's legions of fans, the future for the MMOG genre itself has never seemed more lopsided and limited.

I'll give Second Life one thing: They manage to create more interesting thought experiments than the Philosophy 101 class I dropped in college. Here's the latest, for those of you playing at home:

Anshe Chung (real name Ailin Graef), during an in-game interview with CNET, was attacked by someone who wrote a script that would launch giant flying penises across the stage. The incident, in in-game terms, isn't being discussed beyond normal anti-harassment protocol. However, Chung's real-life husband is emailing organizations (like YouTube and BoingBoing) that have been hosting videos of the incident, threatening them with prosecution under the DMCA for hosting a video with artwork belonging to Chung's corporation, Anshe Chung Studios. Just to make things more interesting, Chung/Graef is a German citizen.

Interesting times around the metaverse.

"God help you if you need publisher funding to do a PC game. Or any game for that matter. As far as the industry is concerned, it's evolve or die. No two ways about it. So, we're evolving because death is clearly not an option."

This is what the LA Times' Joel Stein has to say to you, the person of the year:

"DON'T E-MAIL me. ... Here's what my Internet-fearing editors have failed to understand: I don't want to talk to you; I want to talk at you. A column is not my attempt to engage in a conversation with you. I have more than enough people to converse with. And I don't listen to them either. That sound on the phone, Mom, is me typing."

The full article is password protected, but it's quite enlightening as a look at an old-school journalist attempting to bridge the generation gap and coming up woefully short. But I have to admit I know exactly how he feels.

The cat ate most of the decorations, the sweet potatoes were as runny as the children's noses, Grandma almost died and hardly anybody got exactly what they wanted, but my Christmas vacation this year in Texas was as perfect a holiday as I've ever seen.

There was a large package under the tree, wrapped in gold and tied up with a ribbon of my favorite color, red. I knew this was a special package. I had high hopes for it, but I tried not to get too excited, cuz, well, I knew the Wiis were hard to get. But finally, Christmas morning came, and it was time to open gifts.

There was a delay in getting to that particular one ... I think the gift giver was holding off on purpose, making me wait. And then it came time to open it. I lifted the golden lid...

Each week we ask a question of our staff and featured writers to learn a little bit about them and gain some insight into where they are coming from.

This week's question is:
What was your highest-ever net worth in an online game?

And that's when the brilliance of Microsoft's Xbox strategy finally hit me (like a squeaky piggy barreling through the vortex of space and time). They've finally done it. They created a machine that will someday become an indispensable home accessory, just like the PC. An Xbox in every home, under every TV? It sounds far-fetched now, but so did that other prediction, back in the late 70s, when Bill Gates uttered it.

To compliment your end-of-year nostalgia binge, Team Humidor has compiled a list of what we believe are the top ten story-based games ever made. These are games with a deep, interesting and well-told story that either effected the way we played, or left us affected long after we played them.

We fought long and hard in the Humidor over exactly which games belonged on this list. We started with over 40 games (and we have no doubt that most of you will find fault with at least one of the ones that made it), but in the end, there could be only 10, and here they are (in alphabetical order).

In a dramatic shift from current trends, Nintendo's new console appears to be generating violent, irrational behavior after it's launch, rather than before and/or during, as has been the case with Microsoft's and Sony's new consoles.